Building a Luxury Home Vs A Luxury Renovation

Deciding whether to build a luxury home from scratch or choosing to remodel an existing home is a diﬃcult decision, especially as they are both so similar. Both options allow you to own your dream home, but how do you know which path is right for you and your future housemates?

It’s vital you consider the factors of not only building or renovating a home, but also owning a home (if it is your ﬁrst time, anyway). This article will go through some of the pros and cons of both building and renovating a luxury home which will hopefully help inﬂuence your decision.

Building a Luxury Home

A big and obvious advantage to building your own home is that you are only designing your ‘dream home’, the rest is the builder’s responsibility. Moreover, this whole process gives you the capability to build whatever you want in your home (for a price of course), whether that is an open-planned layout, an advanced modern kitchen, a (dis)connected garage etc. It may be costly, but the possibilities are endless.

When designing this new home, really evaluate the bespoke personalised features you are expecting. Not only do you not need to go over the top and think money, but the prices of these features, depending what they are, could be rolled into the overall mortgage price.

Also, building a new custom-home is in fact much safer than renovating an existing home. This is because it is new, so nothing should need repairing and most new homes come with new technology ﬁtted such as air conditioning, heating, security and smoke alarms etc. So building a luxury home with those additional qualities is indeed a great investment.

Your overall decision should depend on your quality of life such as your ﬁnancial situation and availability etc. For instance, in a new home, you are able to focus on personalising your very own property, rather than just ﬁxing it from previous home owners. However if you need a home as soon as possible, and feel safer DIY, then that’s your personal preference.

One of the most important factors that I should mention is location. When viewing land you need to ask about planning/building permissions, and decide whether the space is big enough for you - there is nothing worst than buying a bit of land, then designing the home to ﬁnd out that there isn’t enough space. A good idea to consider to prevent this from happening is having an initial design in your head. That way, you are able to estimate, as accurately as you can, how big of a property you need.

A Luxury Renovation

Like I said earlier, one of the most important factors is location i.e. where do you want to live? Is anyone else in the neighbourhood doing or had renovations done?

In new-home neighbourhoods, there should be the same amount of luxury quality in each individual home, so whether you choose to renovate a new home, ensure the property doesn’t become overvalued for the neighbourhood - cost and appearance - as this could aﬀect you in the long run if you decide to resale.

On the other hand, in old-home neighbourhoods, there are more likely going to be ﬂaws, whether it’s do with electricity or heating, or maybe there is a few dents and holes here and there. If you value living in a home where it’s had a life before you, such as a Victorian house (built for hundreds of years and ﬂows with history), then go for it. At the end of the day it’s all down to personal preference; whether you want a clean, new home, or a challenging, historic one.

A lot of families also embrace a challenge, so by investing into an existing home and building/ﬁxing it in their own way, it allows the property to become ‘their home’ rather than one that was just built. Again, it’s all a matter of opinion.

A good idea a lot of previous renovators would recommend is having your home inspected by a professional. They will be able to identify any ﬂaws that are unsafe, concerning or genuinely just unattractive. After all the conditions of your home’s features can aﬀect whether you label your home a ‘luxury’ or not, so you are able to locate every ﬂaw in your home that you need to take care of, then as soon as you have taken care of them, the home will be basically brand new again.

Overall, after reading this article that discusses both positive and negative aspects of building vs renovating a luxury home, you should realise that both are similar in costing and considerations and either one will give you your dream home.